8/16/22:

Last Week the Clutch Eyebolts Arrived in 2 days From Kentucky Clutch:


I hand Surfaced the Pressure Ring with a Diamond Stone as it was Not wrecked enough After say 8000 miles to warrant sending out to be blanchard ground.

The parts allowed me to put the pressure plate all back together, hopefully the Fingers will not fatigue, or crack etc. (fingers crossed) if It happens again I have one of the "Spec" Brand Fiero diaphragm Pressure Plates to try next, as they are a direct bolt in / replacement for a 9" slant 6 Borg and Beck Finger / Spring Style Pressure Plate.

Pressure Plate Reassembly:





Every gearhead's household basement should have a 20 Ton Press next to the water heater, makes those pesky bearing and seal jobs at 1AM oh so convenient.

Push it all together with a somewhat close to proper thickness clutch disc, set the finger height, lock down or weld the nuts for the clutch eyebolts... call it good to go.


While I had the Pressure Plate and clutch disc removed from the flywheel I found the input bearing adapter to have dislodged from the back of the crank - I knew It was a light Press fit, but it was too light.
Fortunately It did not do any real damage, just was not supporting the input shaft correctly and was running against the clutch disc. I put it back in the proper place and used some Red Loctite 242 to hopefully hold it in place properly.

I figured this was a good time to make the switch to a hydraulic throwout bearing and get rid of the bulky clutch linkage, Z bar, clutch fork and other associated rods. I had already spent some considerable time reengineering the linkage and reinforcing the Z bar and other parts of the linkage to make it Skookum as Frig, but I was unhappy with how much flex there was in the dash with the clutch pedal pressed down, hopefully this will be better.

Because the Transmission is T5/Ford Parts are readily available and ubiquitous.. Not Something I am accustomed to with Slant 6's and Early Non B/E Body Mopars.
Hydraulic TOB - I used A Tilton 60-6104 - Literature says it's for a Diaphragm Pressure Plate, But it seems to work fine with the 3 Finger one as well. It has a little "finger stick" that replaces one of the input bearing retainer bolts.. this stick is used to keep the bearing body from spinning, some of the hydro TOB's I investigated just used the supply and feed lines for the anti rotation. - This method seemed like a better engineered idea to me.





I am actuating it with a Wilwood GS Compact Master Cylinder 260-15098. They make these in a variety of bore sizes and intergal as well as remote reservoir versions.

Made up some quick mounts and firewall reinforcement plates from scrap metal.


To get somewhat decent geometry to actuate the new clutch master I welded another actuator "nub" on the clutch pedal below the original one. If I ever need to revert back to the linkage and rod system I could do so without much trouble.



I had a helper at the shop help with a bit of the install.


Done, with a pedal stop added on the floor.


Clutch cylinder tucks in nicely next to the brake master, with just enough room to spin the cap off for fluid checks and fill.






Since I had the Car on the Lift and the Trans out to Rebuild the Pressure Plate, I also Accomplished a few other things on my to do list for the car:

- Install the new Polyurethane Motor Mounts from www.polybushings.com
Old Mount on Right, Poly on Left. - The old Rubber Style Mount Was A Recent Parts store Replacement and Was already Moving around a bit.


- Swap to a new steering box - front header needs to be removed to do this swap, and since it was out for the motor mount swap already, it made sense to do it now.



- And lastly, fix the god forsaken '60-'66 Mopar A Body Fuel Cap / Filler Neck Issue.
The left quarter panel on my car **had** nice paint on it until April 2022 when I took it to CMP, there it's a clockwise flow to the track layout meaning lots of repeated long / hard right turns.. Well on those right hand turns the gas sloshes back up the filler neck quite a bit, it ends up coming out of top of the filler neck and the cap can't hold it back, so it ate my paint away.


I have been thinking of a solution for a while, tried better / more / thicker gaskets on the cap, that failed, thought about relocating the filler inside the trunk, then I came up with this...
Get some 1.75" Inside Ø Fuel Hose... Continental 59211 will work..



And a 1 1/2" Ball Valve with 1 1/2" x 3" Pipe Nipples threaded on both ends.


Cut out the appropriate amount of fuel filler neck:


Replace the Removed section with the valve.



Close valve for track day, AutoX, or spirited mountain driving.


' Till Next Time!

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That is certainly an interesting solution for your fuel neck.

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Official Cookie and Mater Tormentor.

Yep. I will torture test it soon. Maybe track day at Pocono backwards..

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Very cool work, Greg. I like the fuel filler solution, but it appears you have lost your tank vent. How will the pressure equalize? Might need to plumb a vent line addition on the tank side of that ball valve?

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines

Thanks Lou,

Yes good eye.
That's in the future plans .. for now i will just leave the valve cracked open a skosh for venting.

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Sounds good. Just making sure you are not driving around with a deformed gas tank!

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines

Never.. not me.

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8/21/22:

I got the vent sorted out. Added a Vent nipple on the Filler neck below the valve, and Teed it into the existing Vent tubing.

I have yet to close the valve and drive a bunch, or throw it into severe RH turns, to test the idea of the valve preventing gasoline draining out of the cap and onto the quarter panel. Maybe next week.

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9/5/22:

Happy Labor Day!

I was busy Futzing with Stuff today. - No events to go to around here, as there is a stalled weather front dropping steady rain on us for the last day or so.

I adjusted the valves a few thou tighter a few weeks ago and in doing so the torque curve / power band moved up - It made the engine have a really smooth idle, but it was like having a Drag race engine as the seat of the pants power feel was moved up above 4000 RPM.

I Redid the valve Adjustment and went back looser - This Time Settled in at 0.024" for the intake and 0.028" for the exhaust. I like a the torque band a bit lower to get the car moving, not slipping the clutch as much, and it's useful when street driving with a trailer or something of the like.

I also Finally got to use the 4 corner scales that I bought back in April... I hauled them to CMP but never got around to weighing anything, as I was busy with lots of various stuff here and there. I had the flat / open / level space available in the garage were I like to do alignments and scaling open so I set it up.



I had added or swapped a bunch of stuff since I last scaled the car, in July 2021 - on possibly a not level surface too .
Total Weight Last Year in Race ready Configuration without Driver or Driver Gear was 3028# - that was also with the Enkei's mounted which are about 8# lighter per corner than the Mustang Wheels Enkei's 16.X# vs Mustang wheels 24.X#

- Swapped the OE Hood for a 10# Fiberglass one
- Swapped the OE Seats for the Sparco's
- Added Proper Racing Harnesses on the Front Seats
- Added a Harness Bar an d Fire Extinguisher
- Added a Trailer Hitch
- Swapped the Mechanical Fan for an electric one.
- Added the Fuel Filler Valve.
- Added the S10 Lower Airdam

I weighed it today with all of that added or swapped stuff as well as the Mustang Wheels ~+32#
2964# Total with 1/4 Tank of gas and the Heavier Mustang Wheels.

53.5% Front 46.5% Rear

Left 49.5% Right 50.5%




Hope to get some driving and autox in soon.

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Nice progress. Good weight balance on that car.

See you on the weekend!

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines

10/12/22:

Boom

I was getting ready to take the car out a show and drive in a few weeks, as I have not driven it in maybe a month.. Checked all the fluids... All good. - Adjusted the curb idle on the Carb, reset the toe, and got the steering wheel back close to straight / center with the new steering box that was installed earlier this summer.

There is a road 4-5 miles from the garage that has ~300 foot elevation gain with twisties that I like to just wring out the car on.

I get to the top of of the hill and through some twisties and boom, no power - sounds like a piston is banging into the head and there was 10PSI oil pressure.. all without warning...

I shut the car off and drifted it to a clearing alongside the road... well crap, I left my phone at the garage for this joy ride. Fortunately, as I put my Hitchhiking thumb out, the first guy driving past stopped to help. I told him to just ride me to the bottom of the hill on the outside of town, but he took me to the garage.. He was working on a '65 Ford comet. Nice of him to give me a lift.

I got the car winched up on the trailer in an hour or so and rolled it off at the garage.
This toy is broke for now, so time to pull the engine and see what happened - will do an autopsy report later.
AutoX and Fall Driving will hafta wait until the spring.
Hope to have some fuel injection installed with the next generation of the engine.

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Well that sucks.

_________________
Official Cookie and Mater Tormentor.

Bummer! Can always be fixed...

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines

Yes, It sure can be fixed. Will save up my pennies and dimes for Machine work, new cam grind and other parts as needed.
Will have to see if any valves got bent, and get some replacements if needed.

I have lots of rods and pistons to choose from - will probably build with new pistons and pins whilst adding the EFI. I have a bunch of good core cranks, oil pumps, and Blocks, and cams to choose from.

Also have tossed around the Idea of Building a short stroke high winding 170 but the headers would be an issue, Could Bite the bullet and contemplate building a Set of 170 Headers too.

or build a boooooooosted 170.

Hmm.....

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This has turned into the most fun car to drive that I own.. Makes pretty much everything else fairly mundane and crappy in comparison... That's what I will miss about it for now.

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